Sprint acquisition surges revenues at Deutsche Telekom

With Sprint now bolstering operations at T-Mobile US, the transatlantic business unit now accounts for 63% of total revenues at the German telecoms operator.

With revenues hitting €27 billion, year-on-year comparisons are very difficult considering the scale of the Sprint acquisition. When this transaction is removed and spreadsheets adjusted for currency fluctuation, revenues grew by 0.1%, however the Sprint acquisition adds a bulky €8 billion to the quarterly numbers.

“The merger in the United States is a historic step for the Group”, said Tim Höttges, CEO of DT. “Our figures are formidable and our strong business operations in Germany and the rest of Europe also play a part in this.”

It is difficult to talk about other topics when this long-awaited acquisition is factored into the quarterly results.

However, revenues in Germany increased by 1.1% year-on-year despite the on-going coronavirus pandemic primarily due to the success of the broadband business unit. With 87,000 net additions in the quarter, the subscriber base is 1.8 million customers larger year-on-year at 15.2 million.

Across Europe, the story was not quite as successful with revenues falling 2% due to the absence of roaming fees. This was particularly impactful in Greece, though the story is still more favourable at DT than other European rivals.

But it is the US which most people are interesting in here. Revenues jumped 72% year-on-year thanks to the inclusion of Sprint, while selling the prepaid operations to Dish also added some very useful weight to the spreadsheets. Organically, revenues declined by 0.8%, however the US has been hit harder by COVID-19 than the vast majority of countries.

The hard work of integrating the Sprint business into the new T-Mobile company now has to begin, but despite some challenging trading conditions, Deutsche Telekom looks to be in a healthy position.

*Excluding Sprint revenues